Cookie Cutter Colleges

I hate to say, "I told you so". Not really. I kind of like pointing out when I predict something that then turns into reality. Remember when it was disclosed that Obama snuck the government takeover of college loans into the obamacare bill? Now, the only way for students to get a college loan is thru Uncle Sugar. I warned everybody, or at least those of you I used to send my email missives to before starting this blog; what the government pays for, eventually the government will want to control. He who pays the piper, calls the tunes. I pointed out that control of ALL college funding in American by the Obama administration would lead to the control of what the colleges could teach, where the student could attend, and what the student could study or major in. Well, the 1st part of that is coming to fruition. And I derive no pleasure from saying "I told you so". I'm really disturbed that it happened so quickly, but then look how much government take-over has been implemented in 19 short months.

If you don't know Arne Duncan, Obama's Secretary of Education, let me tell you about him. There's not really a lot to tell. Most websites I looked at don't mention very much of a personal nature about him. He is from Chicago, home of thugocracy politics, a progressive liberal (naturally), friend and basketball-buddy of Obama (naturally). He was CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the Chicago school district for 7 years. He is not an educator, he is an administrator. The leftwing liberal rag, that Obama likes to cite, the Huffington Post said on 6/7/10 that Duncan is "nothing but a corporate shill willing to bankrupt public education". Duncan is a "greenie"; he has a "green" agenda that he wants to implement to indoctrinate America's students with. And some of it is outright lies. There is an animated video being shown in elementary schools right now called "The Story of Stuff". You can probably see it on Youtube. I saw it, of course, on Fox News. It is telling our kids that it will soon take the area of 5 planets to hold what America uses and wastes; and that when America runs out of "stuff" it thinks the "stuff" of other countries belongs to America, so it just invades them and takes the "stuff" and destroys those countries. Duncan seems to still buy into the myth that is "anthropoligical (manmade) global warming"; he said on 9/23/10, reported in the Motor City Times and CNS News that we "must teach students about how the climate is changing". I guess he missed the news when it was reported that the U.N. scientists responsible for the man-made global warming hoax admitting to falsifying the data.

Let me digress a moment. Those of you who know me, know that during conversations, I sometimes get off point when I have something to say about another point that might come up in the course of a conversation. I want to talk a little about climate change. It's not manmade - it's GOD made. I am appalled at the arrogance of mere mortals that think they can control what is in God's domain. I just now got thru watching a special on the destruction of the Ancient Egyptian Civilization. I'm fascinated with things of the Biblical time. Anyway, this special just happened to be on, of all channels, the Green Channel. It turns out the extremely advanced ancient Egyptian civilization was destroyed by catastrophic climate change. And you know, the special did not once claim that it was man-made; that the ancient Egyptians did themselves in by their own bad habits. The Egyptians believed that their Pharoahs were living Gods, that could and would protect them from anything that might happen to them. Of course, the climate changed once again, and Egypt recovered, but just not in the same exact way it had once been. There was one big difference, though. Egyptians no longer believed that the Pharoahs were all-powerful living Gods; and the Pharoahs no longer ruled over Egypt. Let this be a lesson, America. Obama is not a living God, no matter how much, or how many, people worship him. He has feet of clay.

Now back to the subject at hand. Arne Duncan, Obama's Secretary of Education, wants all schools that accept federal student aid, which since obamacare was passed is the only way to get student aid, to have a license from a state agency that lists "authorized" institutions. And who would authorize those institutions? Why, the Obama administration, of course. Any college that doesn't follow federal guidlines and get "authorized", won't be allowed to accept student funding. What are the federal guidelines? The rules were sent to Congress in August, and unless Congress, which isn't in DC at the moment, moves to block them by November 1, they will go into effect July 2011. I doubt the Washington Times article mentioned them all, but the Dept. of Education will contrive a federal (uniform) definition of what composes a "credit hour" and require 6,000 colleges to accept it's definition. It will require all state accrediting agencies to police procedures at colleges, to make sure all are complying to the new federal guidelines. Another rule will give Duncan the authority to eliminate "due process"; he will be authorized to bar any college from federal programs without notice, a hearing, or right to appeal. It will encourage special interest groups or "pressure groups" to  get legal mandates requiring colleges to implement their curriculum, teaching methods, faculty qualifications, etc, or lose accredition. It will lead to more non-sensical courses like The Study of Zombies (University of Baltimre), Cyber Feminism (Cornell University) or Queer Musicology (UCLA). It will also lead to more professors who educate our students about nothing useful; like Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, Phd. Yes, he's the one who is often a "guest" on O'Reilly on Fox News, after Fox News fired him. "Dr." Hill is a Professor of Education at Columbia University. What does he education young people about? Hip Hop Culture. That's really going to prepare them for the real world. What a waste of staffing funds, and a waste of college tuition. We're likely to see more of this assinine nonsense in the future.

Mr. Duncan is also going after for-profit colleges. He feels that schools that have profitted and prospered render a disservice to students and taxpayers. He wants all colleges under the control and direction of the federal government, and for-profit colleges still retain some measure of autonomy. He proposes a "gainful employment" rule that cuts off federal funding to for-profit colleges unless 45% of graduates can pay down their loan and that the payments are less than 8% of their annual income. Enrollment has tripled at for-profit colleges over the past decade, and Mr. Duncan wants to force them into the Uncle Sugar fold. Nevermind that they give America more successful graduates than other colleges; with a graduation rate of 65% compared to 44% for not-for-profit colleges. The for-profit colleges also give back to our tax coffers. They get federal student funds, but no state funding; yet they pay federal and state taxes. Just one example, from Forbes Magazine; the Apollo Group, parent of the University of Phoenix, paid $445 million in federal income taxes in 2009. Oh yes, I can see how that's a disservice to taxpayers. How dare they pay so much in taxes.  It appears that for Mr. Duncan, and the entire administration, uniformity and government control is everything. America, get ready for Cookie Cutter Colleges, followed by students being told where they can attend and what they will study. America, wake up and smell the youthful brain cells burning.